Head of Unit
Secretariat‐General
Unit SG.A.3 - Transparency & Ethics
European Commission

 

 

Dear Ms X,

On 4 August 2025, the Ombudsman opened an inquiry into the Commission’s refusal to give public access to documents relating to projects seeking the status of ‘strategic project’ under the ‘Critical Raw Materials Act’[1] (‘CRMA’), in reply to the call for applications that the Commission published in May 2024.

As a first inquiry step, the Ombudsman requested that the Commission issue an explicit confirmatory decision as soon as possible and at the latest by 15 September 2025.

On 16 September 2025, the Commission informed the Ombudsman inquiry team that it was not in a position to adopt the confirmatory decision by 15 September 2025. It said that it considered the complainant’s access request to be of a “wide scope” and that it was trying to find a fair solution with the complainant.[2]

As announced in the Ombudsman’s letter of 4 August 2025, the Ombudsman now considers it necessary to review (i) a list of all documents identified as falling within the scope of the complainant’s access request, and (ii) copies of the documents at issue (in line with the new scope of the access request as agreed with the complainant at confirmatory stage), along with (iii) any documentation relating to the consultation of third parties (to the extent that it already exists).

In view of this, the Ombudsman would be grateful if the Commission could provide her Office with the above documents, preferably in electronic format through encrypted e-mail,[3] by 9 October 2025.

The documents subject to the public access request will be treated confidentially, along with any other material the Commission chooses to share with us that it marks confidential. Documents of this kind will be handled and stored in line with this confidential status and will be deleted from the Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.

We would appreciate it if the Commission could inform the Ombudsman, at any stage, if it has issued a response to the complainant’s confirmatory application, and send the Ombudsman a copy of that response.

The inquiries officer responsible for the case is Ms Michaela Gehring.

Yours sincerely,

Rosita Hickey
Director of Inquiries

Strasbourg, 02/10/2025

 

[1] Regulation 2024/1252 of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1252/oj.

[2] Email received on 16 September 2025 entitled “RE: Complaints 1855/2025/MIG (and 2030/2025/MIG)”.

[3] Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox.